music clip of the day

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Category: R&B

Monday, May 30th

Vancouver folkie + iconic Memphis rhythm section.

This should never have worked.

But it does, wonderfully.

Frazey Ford, “September Fields” (Indian Ocean), 2014


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lagniappe

reading table

The climate is pretty.
I wrote everything on it.
That’s the activity where it
gets relatively inauspicious.

***

And you were sitting there
in the night of life. It sure was good.
My favorite desserts were there.
And when they invite you, it’s like an important document
goes missing. I’ll give you an example:
a twelve-year struggle upstate, in
the slick atmosphere of the breakfast room.
It might have gotten stuck in her farthingale.

Otherwise no reply.

—John Ashbery (1927-), “As Someone Who Likes Travel,” fragments (New Yorker, 5/30/16)

To read Ashbery is to read English as a foreign language—which I mean as a compliment.

Friday, May 13th

more Prince

“I Wanna Be Your Lover,” live, Capitol Theatre (Passaic, N.J.), 1982


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lagniappe

reading table

Whatever we’re dealing with catches us
in mid-reconsideration. It’s beautiful,
my lord, just not made to be repeated,
that’s all.

***

It was a moment, what can I say.

—John Ashbery (1927-), Breezeway (2015), fragments (“A Breakfast Radish,” “Domani, Dopodomani”)

Wednesday, May 11th

more Prince

With Miles Davis, live, Paisley Park (Chanhassen, Minn.), 12/31/87

Saturday, April 23rd

passings

Lonnie Mack, guitarist, singer, songwriter, July 18, 1941-April 21, 2016

“Memphis” (C. Berry), 1963


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“She Don’t Come Here Anymore,” 1966


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“Farther on Down the Road,” live (with Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan), New York (Carnegie Hall), 1985

Friday, April 22nd

passings

Prince, singer, songwriter, master of all (musical) trades, June 7, 1958-April 21, 2016

Today, remembering him, we revisit a post from last year.

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With all he does, this can get lost: on guitar, he’s a killer.

Cee Lo Green, “Crazy,” live (with Prince, guitar), New York, 2011


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Stevie Wonder, “Superstition,” live (with Prince, guitar), Paris, 2010


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lagniappe

reading table

I am alive—I guess—

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #605 (Franklin), first line

Wednesday, March 30th

sweet soul music

Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999), “Move On Up” (C. Mayfield), live (Master Henry Gibson [1942-2002], hand drums), Netherlands (The Hague), 1987

Monday, March 28th

sweet soul music

Do you feel me?

—Bobby Womack (1944-2014)

Bobby Womack, live, England (Glastonbury Festival), 2013

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Chicago (Garfield Park Conservatory)

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Saturday, February 20th

old school

Re-Vells, Trent town Records (Trenton, N.J.), 1960s

“I Want a New Love”


***

“Do I Love You?”

 

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lagniappe

art beat

Helen Levitt (1913-2009; MCOTD Hall of Fame), New York, c. 1937

Boy-Drawing-on-a-Sidewalk-002

Wednesday, January 20th

More of the late Otis Clay.

“That’s How It Is (When You’re In Love),” 1967


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“Trying to Live My Life Without You,” 1972


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“Precious, Precious,” 1972


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“The Woman Don’t Live Here No More,” 1974


***

“I Can’t Take It,” 1977


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lagniappe

reading table

. . . life, that storm before the calm.

—Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012, MCOTD Hall of Fame), “Negative” (translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh)

Friday, January 1st

What better way to start the new year?

Aretha Franklin, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (G. Goffin, C. King, J. Wexler), live, Washington, D.C., 2015

 

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lagniappe

reading table

New Year’s Day—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.

—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass